The Clicks Are In And the Winner Is

WSJ.com - What Were the Top News Stories of 2005? We Scan Usage Stats to Let Readers Decide By BILL GRUESKIN : "It's that time of year when news editors around the world assemble their top-10 lists, telling readers what they, the journalists, think the top stories of the year were.

At The Wall Street Journal Online, we like to turn that equation on its head and tell you what you, by your clicking habits, believe our top stories of the year were.

Some of these stories you could have chosen blindfolded. As you'll see from the top 25 list below, hurricanes Katrina and Rita made the list, as did the tsunami, the new pope and the new Fed chairman, Bush's sagging poll numbers and the CIA leak probe.

Google, a company whose stock more than doubled in 2005, took the silver and bronze this year. Readers seemed particularly fascinated by the Page One piece that ran last month detailing how the company's founders had purchased a Boeing 767 wide-body airliner. "We just did the economics," said Larry Page, "and we said, 'you know, it makes a lot of sense.' "

For readers who insist they want more good-news stories about the corporate suite, we have some bad news: Our top-25 list includes pieces on one CEO who was fired (Hewlett-Packard's Carly Fiorina), one CEO who left his company in disgrace (Boeing's Harry Stonecipher) and one former CEO convicted in one of the most massive accounting frauds in corporate history (WorldCom's Bernard Ebbers).

Technology always interests our readers, and that was true this year as well, especially if the stories included the "i" word. Two iPod reviews by Walter Mossberg, the Journal's eminent personal-technology columnist, made the list. One review focused on the nano, the other on the video iPod.

The list also includes, as it often does, several feature stories that come out of nowhere. A powerful piece that appeared on a recent Saturday, titled "The New White Flight," made the top 10. The article, by Journal reporter Suein Hwang, portrays tensions at a Silicon Valley high school where Anglo parents feel less welcome as Asian families move in. Similarly, a wonderful Page One piece about the penchant for rock fans to yell "Freebird" at concerts was a big hit. If you go to that story (#11 on the list), you can also click on some links that let you hear how much the bands like being told what to play. (You might want to move your boss out of the office or your kids out of your study before you do so.)

Some exclusive online features were well read this year. Readers particularly enjoyed a Real Time column, by Jason Fry and Tim Hanrahan, on Amazon.com's $7,989.99 offer to deliver the entire, 1,082-volume Penguin Classics Library. Some of our exclusive infographics, on topics ranging from surging oil prices to the Battleground States Poll on top Senate and gubernatorial races, get tremendous usage. (We're not including them, or our popular questions of the day, on this list due to a difference in counting methods.)

And finally, a few words about WSJ.com's News Trackers, which appear twice on the list, including the top spot. These were born in a crisis -- the first days of Katrina -- when we realized there was far too much news coming in for the essentials to be accommodated within the confines of a standard "main" story. So online editors devised and pushed through the Trackers, which keep you updated, often hourly, on the latest developments in stories, with links to WSJ.com content and video, and outside sources, including blogs and competing news sites. The trackers are part blog, part wire-service, part online-only creatures. And given the success of the hurricane trackers, we've also rolled out versions to keep you updated on avian flu, holiday retail sales, and even this week's transit strike in New York City.

So, click around and see what your fellow readers found interesting this year. Online editors compile these lists not just for the office betting pool, but also to help us determine which stories appeal to you and how we can make the Online Journal more essential to our subscribers. And as it turns out, the stories that interest you are usually also the stories that interest us.

And if you have any thoughts or comments, let me know at b.grueskin@wsj.com.

The Top 25 of 2005
1 -- Hurricane News Trackers (Previous days' trackers appear at the end of this article.)

2 -- Wide-Flying Moguls: Google Duo's New Jet Is a Boeing 767-200

3 -- Battling Google, Microsoft Changes How It Builds Software

4 -- IPod's Latest Siblings

5 -- Beware a 'Digital Munich'

6 -- Video Blogs Break Out With Tsunami Scenes

7 -- Hurricane Rita Makes Landfall; Houston Avoids Major Hit

8 -- H-P's Board Ousts Fiorina as CEO

9 -- Focus of CIA Leak Probe Appears to Widen

10 -- The New White Flight

11 -- Rock's Oldest Joke: Yelling 'Freebird!' in a Crowded Theater

12 -- Real Time: Clicking for the Classics

13 -- Holiday-Sales News Tracker

14 -- Boeing's CEO Forced to Resign Over His Affair With Employee

15 -- A Wall Street Affair: This Bachelor Party Gets Lots of Attention

16 -- Amid Chaos, Louisiana Calls for Help

17 -- Bernanke Is Named to Lead the Fed

18 -- In Choosing Pope, Church Stakes Future on Its Base

19 -- Microsoft Revamp for Online Push Gains Urgency

20 -- As U.S. Mobilizes Aid, Katrina Exposes Flaws in Preparation

21 -- Ebbers Is Convicted in Massive Fraud

22 -- Dozens Die in London Terror Blasts as Europe Struggles to Protect Itself

23 -- Bush's Approval Rating Falls Again, Poll Shows

24 -- A Screen Test For the Video iPod

25 -- China Lets Yuan Rise vs. Dollar

See a rundown of the top 25 of 2004 here."